Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 109 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
o o o
Would You Believe?
In the old burial ground at Old Chelsea is a gravestone in memory of Thomas Wright who died in 1801. What do we know of this man? Not much! There's no picture of him, or where he died or whether indeed his bones are under his memorial.
We do know he was the brother, older by a year, of Philemon Wright, they both fought in the War of the Revolution, they both came in the same party from Woburn, Mass. to the future Hull.
We can surmise that his clothing consisted of a Tricorn hat, woolen cap, cotton and woolen shirts, breeches of wool or leather, heavy boots and moccasins.
His dishes were of pewter, his cutlery had bone handles.
Thomas was aware that Indians were in the vicinity - fortunately friendly - and wild animals, bears, wolves, moose, deer and of course, beavers. He had his old flintlock and knew how to use it. He never met or saw a French Canadian.
George III was England's King and it was he who lost America as a colony - In fact, he had 19 more years to reign after the death of Thomas Wright.
Thomas was not to know of the War of 1812, Nelson's Trafalgar and Wellington's Waterloo nor America's North-South Rebellion. He never saw squared logs in Canada - he, his wife and children occupied a cabin of round logs during the year he was to survive. What happened to his wife we don't know. But his children survived.